508 CURSORY, THOUGHTS

Thefe alterations were avowedly intended to lower the price of corn in Britain, below the na- tural ftandard that the flate of this country mutt fix upon it, in fpite of any laws that can ever be made to prevent it; yet, inftead of producing that effect, it has unfortunately, though neceffarily, happened, that in confequence of the full opera- tion of that fyften of legiflation, which was evi- dently calculated to make this nation depend upon others for bread corn, the rife of prices, occafion- ed partly by a neceflary diminution in the quan- tity of corn produced in Britain, but chiefly by {preading an alarm, which. under thefe circum- ftances is fcarcely to be avoided, has been fuch as to involve the nation in great calamity. Nor have half the evils that will arife from the de- rangement of economy produced by that caufe been as yet experienced. The nation will foon but too feverely feel them.

That the alteration in thé courfe of the corn trade 1s to be attributed chiefly to the ftate, of the cor laws, is évident by infpecting the tables above referred to; for, from.the union till the be- ginning of the year 1757, the cori Jaws be ing allowed all that time to remain unchanged, the exportation of corn went on gradually encreafing,

while the 1: ue were next to nothing; fo as

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